Stan "Pampy" Barre gets 5 years in prison

CHRIS GRANGER / THE TIMES-PICAYUNEStan 'Pampy" Barre speaks to reporters after his sentencing in federal court in New Orleans.

Saying the severity of his crimes outweighed the good he did by admitting his guilt and turning government witness, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier set aside prosecutors' request for leniency and sentenced political insider and airport concessionaire Stan "Pampy" Barre to five years in federal prison Wednesday, closing a chapter in the highest-profile City Hall corruption case in decades.

A co-defendant, contractor Reggie Walker, who helped the feds seal the case against Barre and former city property management director Kerry DeCay, was sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Barbier described Barre, a former New Orleans police officer who parlayed a close relationship with then-Mayor Marc Morial into a raft of public contracts, as a man who had plenty and got greedy, to the detriment of the public's faith in the city. Barre and his co-conspirators admitted skimming almost $1.1 million from a huge energy contract with Johnson Controls Inc. that was signed by Morial, whom the judge alluded to in his remarks but never mentioned by name.

Morial, who is president of the National Urban League, has not been charged with any crimes, though the federal probe that ensnared Barre was centered on contracts let by his administration.

"The crime you committed struck right at the heart of our social structure and the confidence of the public in government, " Barbier told Barre before a packed courtroom. "You were able to rise to a position of wealth and social status you probably thought you'd never achieve. You used that to gain access to public contracts, which though that smacks of political patronage, was not illegal.

"At some point, you were probably overtaken by one of the seven deadly sins: greed. You were not satisfied. You went on and used your political connections to enrich yourself. You somehow managed to become the go-to person in that administration for someone wanting city business, city contracts. You apparently began demanding bribes and kickbacks."

'Made a mess of things'

The sentence Barbier meted out was substantially longer than the three years requested by U.S. Attorney Jim Letten's office in a memo to the court. The memo, filed under seal, detailed Barre's efforts to help investigators with other cases, some of which have become public and some of which have not, according to Jan Mann, Letten's first assistant and the lead prosecutor on the case.

Most prominently, Barre helped the government make its bribery case last year against then-City Council President Oliver Thomas, who at the time was considered the leading contender for the 2010 mayoral election. Thomas is serving 37 months in prison after pleading guilty to taking roughly $20,000 in bribes from Barre.

Mann called Barre's aid "significant and substantial, " telling Barbier that "he really did break through a wall for us."

"He fought us for a very long time, but once he decided to plead guilty, he showed a tremendous amount of remorse and was extremely responsive to our questions, " she said. "The government knows it's asking for an extraordinarily significant departure, but I think it's deserved in this case."

Barre's attorney, Scott Bickford, noted that the case has taken a toll on his client, who faced scorn from some people for the crimes he committed and from others for his decision to help the feds make other cases.

"He has suffered both for his decision to plead guilty and for his cooperation, " Bickford said.

The normally affable Barre, 63, also offered a heartfelt apology and pleaded for mercy, bluntly telling Barbier: "Your Honor, I certainly made a mess of things across the board."

He went on: "I went from being the national policeman of the year to a convicted felon. I went from being a respected businessman to an outcast. . . . For the first time in my life, my wife and I will be separated for more than a few days. I managed to ruin us financially, and turn our golden years into an uncertain nightmare."

Barre also pleaded for mercy from New Orleanians. "The things I did to New Orleans and its taxpaying citizens were just as bad, " he said. "This city trusted me, and I stabbed her in the back in the dead of night."

Judge: Crimes too serious

Barbier, an appointee of President Clinton, noted that federal sentencing guidelines, which judges are not required to heed, prescribed a sentence of nine to 11 years for Barre based on the crimes he admitted. Just more than a year ago, the judge noted, he sentenced DeCay, one of four main defendants, to nine years.

Were it not for Barre's cooperation -- which starkly contrasted with DeCay's disdain for the government -- the judge said he would have likely subjected Barre to "as much time as Mr. DeCay, and probably more."

"My sense of your culpability has been that you were the most culpable of all the people in this scheme, because of your position, " Barbier said. "I don't mean your official position; I mean your political position. You were sort of the point person."

Barbier said he appreciated Barre's contrition after his guilty plea and his cooperation with the government. But the judge said the crimes committed were too serious to warrant the leniency requested by prosecutors.

In addition, the judge rebuked Barre, who is black, for attempting to cast the federal investigation into the contracts he and others landed during the Morial years as racially motivated.

"You knew that was all a lie, " Barbier said. "That is also very damaging to our city."

Barre, who looked ashen as he left the courtroom, was ordered to report to prison Oct. 7.

The judge took a similarly tough approach to Walker, who helped the government convict Barre and DeCay by pleading guilty to two felonies on the eve of trial. Walker, 60, owned Moss Creek Development Co. Inc., a major subcontractor in the Johnson Controls deal, through which several bogus invoices were routed.

Mann said she believed Walker was not one of the prime movers behind the scheme and said she thought he "wanted to plead guilty before the indictment, but I think he had outside pressure" not to.

After he pleaded guilty, "the whole house of cards fell, " Mann said. "He was important for a lot of reasons."

In an effort to show Barbier how wrenching the fallout from the corruption case has been for its major players, Walker's attorney, Mike Ellis, called Walker's wife of 28 years, Sheila, to the stand.

Sheila Walker said she and her husband are lifelong New Orleanians who now find it nearly impossible to live here. Whereas her husband was once well-respected in the community, people now call him "rat" and "snitch, " she said. He had to close his business, she said, saying he had "almost become a broken man."

Though Mann did not request a specific sentence for Walker, Ellis asked Barbier to consider giving his client probation. Instead, Barbier sentenced him to 30 months in prison. Barbier did, however, promise Ellis that he would ask the federal Bureau of Prisons to allow Walker to serve his term in Beaumont, Texas, which is not far from where his family now lives. Walker must report to prison Sept. 9.

Likewise, Barbier said he would ask that Barre serve his sentence in a federal prison in Pensacola, Fla., where Barre said he and his wife planned to relocate.

Restitution ordered

Along with their prison terms, Barre, DeCay and Walker are responsible for repaying the $1.06 million they took from the city, Barbier decreed. Barre said he was going to make a $110,000 payment after leaving the courtroom, leaving the balance at about $950,000.

The other main player in the scheme, Terry Songy, who was a project manager for Johnson Controls, is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 20 by U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance. Because he was the first central player to turn state's evidence, Songy is likely to receive the lightest sentence.

The judgments handed down Wednesday came 18 months after Barre's guilty plea and seven delays in sentencing dates, most of them requested by the federal government. Left unresolved is at least one lead Barre provided to investigators: an alleged scheme to rig a garbage contract awarded by the School Board.

Barre told investigators last year that he passed cash bribes from two trash haulers to banker Dave Anderson in exchange for a guarantee that Anderson's wife, School Board member Una Anderson, would support the contract award.

While the award occurred, the Andersons have strongly denied that they took bribes. Neither has been charged with a crime, nor have either of the trash haulers.

Some lawyers view the government's decision to allow Barre to be sentenced as a sign that the government has decided not to pursue charges in that case.

In remarks outside the courthouse Wednesday, Mann cautioned against such a reading, telling reporters that the government's corruption investigations are ongoing.

"We follow the evidence, and there's still evidence on the table, " she said. She added that prosecutors can always ask a judge to reduce a convict's sentence after the fact if information he provides leads to a new case.

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Gordon Russell can be reached at grussell@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3347.